How Great Leaders Build Resilient Companies and Teams | Sabrina Parsons Part 1

Welcome to the Legacy All-Stars Podcast. We feature inspirational stories from people who dedicate themselves to helping others. Here is your host, Alan Pavlosky.

Hey everybody, we are back. We're at Legacy All-Stars Podcast where we highlight leaders using their talents, influence, and experience to make the world a better place. I'm your host, Alan Pavlosky. Today's guest is Sabrina Parsons, CEO of Palo Alto Software. The company behind LivePlan and the original Business Plan Pro software that have helped millions of entrepreneurs turn ideas into viable businesses. Sabrina, welcome to the show. Great to see you.

Thanks. That was a great introduction. And, uh, yeah, it's been a long journey and Business Plan Pro to LivePlan, but lots of other ways that I've been involved in helping people succeed in business and in life.

You know, and I have a lot of questions I want to ask you about those exact subjects. Before we dive in, I want to share a quick personal note. Decades ago, and I mean decades ago, when I was developing business plans for some of my early ventures, I used a software program called Business Plan Pro. What's remarkable to me now is realizing that that tool I used back then has helped millions of entrepreneurs around the world take an idea and turn it into something real. So on that basis, I want to personally express my gratitude for the great work you and your, your predecessors have done to help others.

Oh, thank you. I always love to hear the stories of especially Business Plan Pro because it's been a while since Business Plan Pro has been out in the wild, but it is the original software tool that became the inspiration for LivePlan today. So I appreciate meeting anyone who's used it and I love entrepreneurs who actually plan.

Yeah, I'm one of the OGs of Business Plan Pro for sure.

Awesome.

Yeah. Good. What is the latest iteration of LivePlan have in common with the original Business Plan Pro and/or what are the differences?

You know, what it really has in common is the methodology behind the planning. From the very beginning, Business Plan Pro was built with a methodology that it wasn't just about planning, it was about planning And then reviewing and revising your plan. That's actually why we ended up choosing the name LivePlan, because it's a living document. And so that methodology of doing it right, learning, understanding, not just like a fill-in-the-blanks TurboTax, like we really want entrepreneurs to learn along the way because a lot of people don't have MBAs and have never written business planning. So that's where Business Plan Pro and LivePlan have a lot in common. It's that methodology of how do you help someone do this pretty meaty, not easy task and teach them and educate them along the way so that they know more about their business afterwards. What it doesn't have in common is LivePlan is fully SaaS in the cloud, completely different technology, right? Business Plan Pro, you probably got a CD-ROM, maybe you downloaded a Windows version. I don't think my kids have ever seen a computer that takes a CD-ROM.

No, mine have. My kids are a little older, but mine have seen that, but they certainly don't remember it very well at this point.

My 16-year-old found a box in my desk here in my home office full of blank CD-ROMs, and he brought it out. He was— I don't know what he was looking for. And he was like, what are these? He had no idea. He had never even seen them.

So probably thought it was a Frisbee or something.

Yeah, exactly. He was like, what are these even for? What are they doing here? Yeah. So yeah, the technology is definitely different. And I would say in the last few years, we've innovated even more with LivePlan. I mean, you can't be someone that's in any sort of internet technology world and not understand how much AI is changing things.

Yeah, we'll get into that. I have a few questions about that. So, so definitely.

So it's not just that it's SaaS software in the cloud. In Business Plan Pro, we used to have sort of that the way you developed the technology was towards your, uh, golden master that was your CD-ROM, and that was your download. And so it was sort of, what's that date? And then we have it, and then you develop more things, but you'd wait until you had another golden master to release something. We are releasing constantly, right? And yeah, you have to, to be software in today's world, and users expect it. And there's also super cool innovation, so we're just moving very, very quickly, and I think that's just the name of the game right now.

Yeah. What kind of impact do you believe Palo Alto Software has had on the global entrepreneurial ecosystem?

Oh, that's a great question. I mean, we've done a lot of measuring, a lot of data. We know that we have helped fund billions of dollars in not just the US but worldwide. And that's super cool. There's two things I really love in terms of impact is helping people actually get the funding that you need. So from $5,000 to $50 million, we have helped entrepreneurs, but also helping an entrepreneur understand when their business idea maybe doesn't have legs before they go out and invest tons of money or try to get funded or get funded and and fail. So helping them actually understand, is this viable? And if not, how do I pivot? And I think that's the impact that I'm most proud of.

Yeah, I mean, we talk about legacy on this show a lot. What is the legacy of the software and your new LivePlan version? What does that mean to you personally?

You know, for me, it's about kind of more living the everyday entrepreneurial world. My background is an entrepreneur like startups, tech. My first job out of college in '96 was in dot-com in Silicon Valley, and I've just always been driven by the excitement, risk, and unknown of being an entrepreneur. If you're running a business for 20+ years, people say, well, that's not the same. You don't have that anymore. And so the fact that I get to live it every day and get to feel that entrepreneurial spirit, that I'm helping people live out their dreams, that I'm part of building new businesses every day. I feel like that's my passion and my legacy.

Yeah, it's funny, you know, living in the Silicon Valley area and the Bay Area like I do, you can feel the energy here about all the startups and all the innovation going on. And the same is true of the Pacific Northwest and some of the East Coast cities and everything as well. There's a lot of new things going on in the Midwest. I mean, so it's nice when you get that energy of people surrounding you and certainly the software products and the SaaS products that help you crystallize the thought process to your business can be really powerful.

Yeah, it's great. And knowing that, you know, we can have that impact to make sure that a small business and a startup actually gets the growth, pays back the loan, and, you know, supports a family. And at the end of the day, that's really cool.

Are there any stories that stand out to you from people who built their companies using your tools?

Oh my goodness, there's so many great stories. What are a couple of my favorite ones? There, there is an entrepreneur actually who was here locally who was very passionate about animals, dogs, really wanted to start a, some sort of a boarding doggy daycare. This was about 20 years ago, we were just creating Lifeplan. We got to work with her as kind of a tester, but also help her launch her business. She called it Lucky Dog. And it was, I think it's now something you see everywhere, but 20 years ago, this idea that it was not just boarding for dogs in like kennels, but that it was this full service doggy daycare. You could sign your dogs to like go on hikes. Like it was just really approaching how you offered this service to passionate pet owners in this very different way. And she had already been turned down by every bank she went to. They really didn't believe in sort of straying from, no, you just, you need you know, some land, you build some, like, kennels with chain-link fence. Like, we don't understand what you're doing here, and we don't believe in it. And so to actually help her through a business plan convey not just her strategy, her marketing, the market, the fact that there was a market available of people willing to pay more than what, you know, the $20 back then that you would pay to leave your dog overnight in a kennel that you were willing to pay $50 because your dog was going to get way more. We actually helped her get an SBA loan after working with her, and she was the initial kind of beta for the very first live plan. Wow. So I always love to think about Lucky Dog and Mandy and what she did, and she built a very successful business and opened multiple locations. Think about 5 years ago, ended up selling the business when she was ready to. But initially she was told, no, this isn't— why are you doing it differently than other people? Just do the thing people do and then we'll get you the bank loan. And to be able to work with her, make our software better, you know, make that software better for her and people like her and see her be successful was super cool. We helped her probably— so 20 years ago, 15 years ago. I mean, what was it, 2012 was when we were helping her and when LivePlan came out. And then 5 years after that, she came back to LivePlan and actually worked with her and mentored her because we built a new plan to fund 3 new locations.

Wow. Yeah, that's great. I mean, people can never measure their true impact until you see the long-term growth and benefit of how it's affected the greater good in general. And one of the things I love about entrepreneurs is that so many of the entrepreneurs I work with are purpose-driven and they want to make a difference. And so giving people the means to make a difference or allowing them to get to a place where they have the means to make a difference is really powerful.

Yeah, exactly. And I feel like it's part of what I love about my job every day, right? What I already talked about. I feel like I get to live in this world even though You know, my business has been around for a long time, but I get to live in this kind of more exciting, sort of risky entrepreneurial world every day.

Yeah. What initially drew you to entrepreneurship and eventually to leading a SaaS company?

That is a really good question. So a little history and background. I have been involved with Palo Alto Software since— and when I tell people this, they're like, what, were you 12? Yes. My dad started the business in Palo Alto, California. I remember being in high school and I got in trouble. I was a naughty high schooler and it was spring break and I was punished by having to be in my dad's office. And back then it was floppy disks. And so I spent spring break putting stickers on floppy disks. Palo Alto Software goes way back in my history. When I went off to college, maybe my junior year, where my dad and I would talk and he would say, "Well, you should come work with me." And I always used to say, "Never, that seems boring. I don't even know what you do. What is this whole business planning thing? I'm not doing that. I'm not going to work for you. I'm going to do my own thing." I went back east for college. I went to Princeton. I got a history degree, nothing to do with entrepreneurship. But then I ended up coming back to the Silicon Valley because I missed California. I missed the weather. The East Coast is very different and very cold in the winter, and lived and breathed dot-com entrepreneurship bubble, crazy times, money just being thrown out with no plans, no financials. And in that time, I really started to draw and connect the dots between what I was seeing lacking when people started businesses and what my dad was doing. And so like I started to have these aha moments of like, huh, we should have had a plan. And, you know, I remember I was part of a startup, Epinions.com, that pitched Benchmark Venture Capital, 8 slides, $8 million, no financials. Right. And that was the time. That's what would happen. And it ended up getting bought by eBay. Like, I mean, things went well, but that was the time a lot of things didn't go well in Epinions. In lots of different companies because there was no planning. I ended up getting married and my husband had dual citizenship in the UK and we moved to London and it was 2001 and had been in the Valley since '96. So we had all this Valley experience. So we said, we're going to move to London, maybe get jobs, maybe we'll consult. We know we have a lot of tech experience that people over there are going to like. Well, we ended up actually starting the UK business for Palo Alto Software. My dad had a contract he was negotiating with a firm that was going to localize and bring the product to market in the UK and the EU. And when we went over there, he called me up and he said, hey, I've got this contract. We're negotiating it. If you want to look at the contract, I'm not going to give you different terms. I'm already happy with these terms. But if you want to take these terms You and Noah, my husband, you guys can do this. You have the experience. If you're looking for something to do, it's kind of like your own thing. You're going to have to incorporate over there. You're going to have to start a business. You're going to have to be boots on the ground. If you want to do this, I'm happy to let you guys take this contract that I've negotiated. And so we did, and we took a chance, and we started the UK business. And almost 3 years later, ended up coming back to the US, helping over here. And by 2007, my dad decided to step down. We still had Business Plan Pro. We did not build LivePlan and launch it till— we started building it in 2011, but we launched it in 2012. And so LivePlan is more my legacy. Business Plan Pro is my father's. But that methodology comes a lot from the way he envisioned Business Plan Pro and we carried it on.

Absolutely. I want to shift gears a little bit because, you know, with all the talk about diversity and inclusion and the way people are treated that come from other countries here, I think it can be tragic. And so I wanted to talk to you about how growing up around your grandmother in Cuernavaca influenced your perspective on leadership.

Yeah, that's a great question. I was born in Mexico City. My mom is Mexican. I actually lived in Mexico City till I was almost 8, um, and that's when we moved to the U.S. So Spanish was my first language. My mom's entire family was Mexico City, and then my grandmother was in Cuernavaca. And even when we moved, every summer was spent in Mexico. I have cousins that I grew up with almost as brothers. Who grew up in Mexico City. And yeah, I mean, it very much influenced my entire world perspective. And when I moved back to the US, we moved to California. I don't look very Mexican, so I carry a lot of white privilege, but I'm fluent in Spanish, native speaker, because it's my first language. And yeah, growing up in California, I had a lot of instances where I had to sort figure out how do I speak up, what do I say, as people would say things not realizing I was Mexican. Right. So Mexicans were called gardeners or maids, and it was sort of this secret code word because people didn't realize. And then as a kid growing up, being 9, 10, sometimes it's hard to speak up. You don't want people to know you or to— it's awkward, it feels embarrassing, you're not sure how to deal with it. And so definitely finding my place as someone who is both Mexican and American. What did that mean? How do I relate to things? What does it mean, you know, when I had kids here in Oregon? How do I expose them? How do we talk about other people and, you know, communities? And so it's been a really huge influence in just my perspective on how I see things and My kids have grown up among the Mexican community in Eugene, Oregon. My mom is very embedded in the Mexican community here, and by the time I had my third son, I was CEO. I needed a lot of help, so we actually had a nanny— well, have, because she's still with us— who started when Sammy, who's 16, she started with us when he was 3 months old. And really helped me raise my boys. And even though my youngest is 16, she still comes and helps me and works with us. When my two older boys are in college, they come back, she comes, and they always want to know, like, when is Josie coming? Have you told Josie? Her name's Josefina. So have you told Josie when I'm going to be here? And they've grown up really seeing and understanding you know, this different community that gets treated differently. They've seen friends and people that we're very close with deported. At one point, our nanny was deported and my 16-year-old was 9, and that was very traumatic for him. So yeah, I mean, I think that it's been part of just growing up And it's also helped me, and I've hopefully imparted that to my kids, just really understand that diversity brings this completely different perspective that is really helpful in so many aspects of your life, from brainstorming and being able to bring different ideas on the business side to The ability to bring more empathy in different personal situations as well, as well as a commitment to just being involved in a community and not just saying or donating, but actually being involved and helping and volunteering and living it every day. Yeah.

Yeah. How meaningful has it been for you to provide a good living for so many employees while ensuring that their health and sustainability remain priorities?

Oh, that's a great question. That is really important to me. As we built our company, the morals and the values of the company are very important, and we live by a culture that is backed by our values and morals. So we're very much cognizant of living wage. What does that mean? And we have customer service employees and, you know, we said We're not going to pay minimum wage to customer service employees. We are going to pay a living wage. If people can't make $50,000, they can't live. And so starting from that perspective of treating people like people and not like employees and helping, you know, that includes also if you want to have more women in technology, you have to think differently about working moms. And how working moms are integrated into our office. I brought all 3 of my kids when they were babies into the office for the first probably like 6 months of their lives because I was breastfeeding and it's what I needed. And I had support and help from my family, our nanny. So it wasn't like I was, you know, there without it. I realize I have some privilege, but my kids came to the office with me. When I traveled and they were little, my mom would come with me. So that I could bring whoever was the baby. And we've extended that to all of our employees. So all of our working moms, we have a room that has a pack and play and a rocker and a fridge to be able to pump and put your breast milk. And if your baby, you know, obviously it doesn't always work. You can have babies who have lots of colic or special needs, but if it works, we've always encouraged moms You know, take time at home, take your full maternity leave, full 3 months paid, which is barely enough, but more than most people in the US get. We give paternity leave as well, and it's paid as well. We believe it's important that fathers also bond with their, with their kids. Really just taking that viewpoint that if you treat people like people and not employee numbers, that in the end the company wins. And if the company wins, the people win.

We've come to the end of part 1 of the Sabrina Parsons episode. You'll be able to find part 2 next week. I hope you join us.